Freshwater fish for nutrition security in India: Evidence from FAO data

The nutritional dimension is integral to the concept of food security. A wide range of food commodities are required to fulfill nutritional security need of the people. Animal proteins which include milk, fish, meat and egg are essentially required for nutritionally balanced diets which are available from diverse food commodities. The fish in general and freshwater fish in particular are among the fast growing sectors with increasing contributions in the nutrition security of Indian consumers. The present paper analyses relative role of fish in the nutritional security of India based on the food balance sheet data of FAO available for the period 1961-2013. The apparent fish consumption per capita per year in India has increased primarily due to increase in freshwater fish availability from 0.7 kg/cap/year in 1961-3.48 kg/cap/year in 2013, enabling increase in the overall fish availability from 1.9 to 5.04 kg/cap/year during this period. During 1961-2013, contributions of freshwater fish to non-vegetarian protein, animal protein and total protein increased from 9.1 to 27.2, 3.3-8.7 and 0.4-1.7%, respectively